A new era looms for Politico

Politico’s rapid expansion has revolutionized online journalism. But it, too, is being pinched by career restlessness and conflicting ambitions evident at other enduring start-ups.

The tension bubbled to the surface last week when the influential Washington political news website announced that co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei, star political reporter Mike Allen and other key players will leave later this year. And as if that isn't enough churn, the site also will be changing editors in 2016.

The departure of VandeHei and Allen, two quintessential Politico figures, after the election presages major changes at the groundbreaking site, one of the most successful digital journalism ventures.

VandeHei, who co-founded Politico in 2007 with Politico editor in chief John Harris after the idea was rejected by their former employer, The Washington Post, has been the site’s standard bearer, championing its rapid-fire, saturation coverage of all things Beltway. Allen's daily briefing of the political scene, called "Politico Playbook," is a signature Politico column and must reading in Washington.

The huge shake-up surprised the newsroom, already accustomed to rampant staff turnover, and triggered speculation that it was a result of ongoing jostling for control among the top leaders. Not so, say the executives.

VandeHei told the newsroom that he caught an entrepreneurial bug that he couldn’t shake and was ready for a new project. Robert Allbritton, founder and publisher of Politico, echoed the message in a staff memo, saying VandeHei began signaling his interest in a new venture “some years ago.” As for what lies ahead, he wrote, "We are about to experience the most exciting, and I expect most enjoyable, period of expansion in 10 years."

Still, other sweeping changes, also announced Thursday, reflect a broader, seminal shift for a news organization whose operational mode has been entrepreneurial and unapologetically disruptive.

Allbritton – who funded its start — will take on the title of CEO, “eager to make the strategic direction of Politico (his) primary professional focus," he wrote. Harris will become publisher.

Allbritton and VandeHei clashed over budget issues and expansion efforts, Dylan Byers, a former Politico staffer, reported on CNN.

Susan Glasser, the hard-charging editor of Politico, will also leave her chair at the end of the year, shifting to the role of director of editorial innovation. Her husband, New York Times' chief White House correspondent Peter Baker, on Friday was named the newspaper's Jerusalem bureau chief.

COO Kim Kingsley and Danielle Jones, executive vice president for expansion, will be gone before the end of summer. Chief revenue officer Roy Schwartz will leave after the election.

In June, 2013, Allbritton Communications agreed to sell its TV stations to Sinclair Broadcast Group and began focusing on expanding Politico. Later that year, Politico acquired Capital New York, which covers politics in New York, and rebranded it as Politico New York. Politico expanded its coverage of statehouse politics last year by opening bureaus outside Washington, D.C..

Politico also launched in Europe last year and now has bureaus in Brussels, London, Berlin and Paris. In 2015 alone, Politico added nearly 150 employees, bringing the total head count to about 500.